Horses, Life, A Touch of Geek

In Defense of Frivolity

I’m having trouble getting past the latest ghastly news. It’s hit me square in the what-is-the-world-coming-to. I have no specific reason that this horrible event should resonate worse than any other horrible event. Yet it keeps bouncing around my head making distracting echo-y noises. Every time I try to plot out posts for the next few days, I think, ‘A horse blog? Really? Who the f**k cares?’

After 9/11, the first book I was able to sit down and read was from Lawrence Block‘s Evan Tanner series. These are goofy, well-executed, over-the-top adventure stories. A potato chip book, my grandmother would have called it. It was the first thing that really distracted me and made me smile that month. My writing may never affect another person like that. It may and I may never know. I may only amuse myself. That may be enough. Life is cupcakes as well as broccoli.

Tomorrow a return to levity and horse frolics.
Allons-y.

Share this:

Like this:

Events like this remind us how connected humans are. Feeling bereft for a family in Boston who I have never met may seem strange on the surface. But as a human being, who has an 8-year old child, who has had my family waiting for me at the finish line of a big race, I think it would be stranger still if I didn’t cry for them. Their lives have changed horribly, dramatically, publicly, because they wanted to be there for dad’s triumph. I can’t imagine how they will be able to move on from this; I keep them in our thoughts and prayers.

During 911 and the days that followed, my mother, your grandmother, was in bed with her terminal case of COPD. Television was a major part of her day. An avid golfer, she followed the PGA tournaments religiously.

911 hit her hard. As you did, she lived her first decade in Manhattan, her father worked there all his life and I had lived there for 22 years. Although she knew no one directly affected, the tragedy was hard to bear.

And she had no way to get away from it. Her beloved golf tournaments were cancelled. The only thing her television brought her was the horror and pain of NYC that September.

Cupcakes and potato chips would have been a mercy and a blessing. Write on, please. You bring joy and peace for a brief moment and something to look forward to all day in a world that is sometimes hard to understand.

It is hard, and it is horrible. But part of recovering and not letting the crazies take us down *is* getting on with our normal lives and truly living. We need to stay connected, remember there are good people in this world and good things that happen every day. It effects all of us and we cry for all that happened and we make sure we love each other and find the joy in the world that is out there to find each day. {hugs}